Port of Montreal  Mr. Speaker, unfortunately the story of arm twisting and influence peddling continues. The Conservatives are not helping to shed light on the matter. Here is another conversation between Mr. Poulin and Mr. Accurso: Mr. Poulin: “...We'll get the information. Now, Soudas, if he

Port of Montreal  Mr. Speaker, unfortunately there are many more questions than answers about corruption at the Montreal Port Authority. This is what Bernard Poulin had to say to Tony Accurso about Leo Housakos: “Leo Housakos is coming to see me...Leo is good not because of his association with C

Service Canada  Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, that is still quite a bad answer. Today is December 2. It is snowing. It is beautiful. Children are happy. Walking through the corridors of Parliament this morning, I saw a lot of fir trees. There were little ones, medium-sized ones, big ones, with ba

Service Canada  Mr. Speaker, if there are no national directives, there is a very clear Quebec directive in any case. It is not just the employees who are deprived of the magic of Christmas in their workplace. The Conservatives also want to deprive hundreds of members of the public of these ann

Safe Streets and Communities Act  Madam Speaker, I thank the Conservative member for her speech. I am particularly touched by the fact that she is concerned about the exploitation of workers. Since I have over 10 years of experience working in human rights and the union movement, the topics of abuse and harsh tr

Government Appointments  Mr. Speaker, every day Canadians learn of more pork patronage from that out-of-touch government. Today, its defeated Conservative minister, Jean-Pierre Blackburn, could soon be jetting off to UNESCO in Paris thanks to his buddies. Appointing Conservative friends to important po

Government Appointments  Mr. Speaker, it is hard to be convincing when you are not convinced. I would also remind the House that the Prime Minister promised not to appoint any new unelected senators. Yet one of the first things he did after the election was to appoint not one, not two, but three defeated

Copyright Modernization Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for the question. We do not want to leave any stone unturned, because many of the issues regarding Bill C-11 are very important. The Conservative government would benefit from broader consultation, a broader public discussion. But that does

Copyright Modernization Act  Mr. Speaker, do we need to modernize the act? Yes, of course. Are some parts of the act outdated? Yes, of course. Is this a balanced bill that takes into consideration consumers, students and artists? The answer is no. This bill is completely unbalanced and represents a backward

Copyright Modernization Act  Mr. Speaker, I have one preliminary remark. I simply must comment on the fact that this important debate on the future of culture in Canada and in Quebec is mostly taking place on one side of the House. No Conservative members are rising to defend the government’s bill. The New

G8 Summit  Mr. Speaker, we could count the number of times he has not answered the questions put to him in this House. The member for Parry Sound—Muskoka claims that he had no part in eliminating the famous 33rd project. That is untrue. At least three documents prove that and contradict wh

G8 Summit  Mr. Speaker, the President of the Treasury Board claimed that he was not involved in picking projects for the legacy slush fund. Documents the NDP has now obtained show this is simply not true. According to his own office, he was personally involved in selecting projects. We as

Auditor General's Report  Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General's report has confirmed what the NDP has been saying for quite some time. The Conservatives have a habit of being opaque. They ignore evidence, reject the advice of experts and are not accountable to Canadians. The Auditor General said “that poor i

International Forum on the Social and Solidarity Economy  Mr. Speaker, I would like to draw attention to the success of the International Forum on the Social and Solidarity Economy, which was recently held in Montreal. More than 1,300 people from 65 countries participated in discussions about how to do business differently, by putting

Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Hochelaga for her question. Her riding is next to mine on the island of Montreal. I was beginning to address the topic of household and family debt, which is extremely worrisome. We in the NDP are not the only ones who are worried. A st